


The Pursuit of Science and the Surprising Results It Brings

by lumateranlibrarian



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, Holds a special place in my heart, bella what are you doing, bella?, put the rake down PUT THE RAKE DOWN, scientist!Bungo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 19:49:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6128170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lumateranlibrarian/pseuds/lumateranlibrarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belladonna was high-footing it past Bag End on an early spring morning when she heard it floating through an open window on the hill.</p><p>“... you warg-licking, downtrodden, tree-humping, washout, ill-kempt excuse…”</p><p>She froze in her silent tracks. That sounded like Bungo Baggins’ voice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pursuit of Science and the Surprising Results It Brings

Belladonna was high-footing it past Bag End on an early spring morning when she heard it floating through an open window on the hill.

 

“... you  _ warg _ -licking,  _ down _ trodden, tree-humping,  _ washout, _ ill-kempt excuse…”

 

She froze in her silent tracks. That sounded like Bungo Baggins’ voice. Was he being assaulted? Was he  _ doing _ the assaulting?

 

The Gamgee residence was only a few seconds’ jog back down the path, so Belladonna went and retrieved a garden rake that she’d spotted earlier leaning up against their fence. She hefted it in one hand experimentally. Yes, if she screamed rather loudly, this and that should be enough to fend off anything too unpleasant.

 

Belladonna skipped up to the front step of Bag End, mentally prepared herself, and knocked very hard. She jumped out of the way and hid by the side of the door as the swearing promptly cut off. She heard approaching footsteps from inside the hobbit-hole, and raised the rake.

 

The green door opened inwards, and sure enough, a slightly-ruffled Mister Baggins poked his head out.

 

(It was a nice head, if Belladonna were one hundred percent truthful. It had pretty honey curls, and a pleasing roundness to the nose. Not that she cared to notice such things.)

 

“Hello?”

 

Quick like a snake, Belladonna snagged his sleeve and pulled him out of the hobbit-hole.

 

“Mister Baggins, are you being attacked?” she hissed.

 

Mister Baggins wobbled on his feet for a moment before regaining his balance. “I  _ beg  _ your pardon,” he began huffily, and then registered who it was he was speaking to. “Oh. Miss Took. I… Oh,  _ bugg-- _ that is to say.” He gulped. “Oh dear. I’m so sorry, you didn’t happen to hear all that? No, no, nothing’s the matter, I’m fine, quite fine, yes, nothing’s wrong! Aha. Yes. Nothing’s wrong, can I help you?”

 

Belladonna squinted at him. “Mister Baggins, are you  _ attacking _ anybody in there?”

 

Mister Baggin’s face went blank in surprise, and then grew comically furious, all in the time it took to draw a breath. “I would  _ never!” _ he all but shrieked. “How dare you suggest such a thing!” he continued, and poked her in the shoulder with great affrontedness.

 

Belladonna set the rake in her hand against the doorframe and crossed her arms expectantly. Mister Baggins blinked (presumably at his own outburst) and after a moment of somewhat stunned consideration, he grumbled. “Well, I’m not attacking anything I didn’t bring upon myself.”

 

“Thank you, that makes everything much clearer,” Belladonna retorted.

 

Mister Baggins’ face reddened, and he shoulders squared defensively. Belladonna noted vaguely that she’d never seen a member of the Baggins clan so incensed before. They were usually a placid bunch.

 

“I’m trying to build an icebox,” Mister Baggins snapped, and he sidestepped her and closed the door in her face before she could get out another word.

 

“A what?” Belladonna managed after a few moments, but her question fell to the air and was left unanswered.

 

Well. That simply wouldn’t do. And an icebox? What, by all that was green, was an  _ icebox? _

 

Belladonna knocked on the door to Bag End once more. She waited several minutes with no answer. “I know you’re in there,” she muttered, and snatched her borrowed rake before letting herself in.

  
  
  
  
  
  


It was surprisingly warm inside the hobbit-hole, and Belladonna was curious, as she’d never set foot inside Bag End before. It felt oddly empty and lightless, but she followed her ears and her nose until she found a room on the side of the hill that seemed to be the source of all the commotion.

 

She stared at the contraption before her.

 

It appeared to consist of a wooden framework made up of three stacked tables and the skeleton of a wheelbarrow. There were several metal boxes in the open spaces, many having spinning clock faces attached to the outward-facing walls, and pipes connected the various compartments to one another in an orderly-looking sequence. Belladonna counted no less than six glass jugs containing liquids in varying shades of amber perched precariously along the contraption. Water dripped sporadically from a few cranked valves and into pie pans on the floor.

 

“An icebox?” Belladonna murmured, and absently tucked her rake into an out-of-the-way corner. She stepped up to the machine, and sure enough, it was radiating heat when she put her palm near one of the dials.

 

“Not very cold,” she announced to the empty room. “But there are a lot of boxes.”

 

A throat cleared itself behind her, and Belladonna startled. She spun around, and there was Mister Baggins, with a mortified expression on his face and a large mug of tea in his hands.

 

“Mister Baggins!” Belladonna yelped. “I was just wondering about your icebox. Thing. It’s very large.”

 

_ Oh yes, very large, well done, Mistress Took. The pinnacle of fine Shire intelligence, you are. _

 

Mister Baggins’ expression didn’t change, and Belladonna felt a sudden prick of shame. She curled her toes embarrassedly. “Forgive me. I shouldn’t have barged in like that. I was only curious.”

 

Mister Baggins’ eyebrows nearly leapt off his face as he made a gargled attempt at words. He cleared his throat, and Belladonna chanced a fuller glance at him.

 

“You’re… curious, then?”

 

“Well, yes.” She’d thought that  _ that _ was obvious.

 

“It’s an icebox,” Mister Baggins said with a helpful gesture.

 

Oh, for the love of the hills, Belladonna was about to smack someone, and she wasn’t entirely sure whether it should be Mister Baggins or herself. “I am aware it’s an icebox,” she explained, with what she felt was impressive patience, “but I don’t know what it is or how it works or why, for that matter, you’re hiding one in your home. And I want to know.”

 

She and Mister Baggins regarded each other for a long, stubborn minute before Mister Baggins squinted at her and sighed. “Well, if you’re not having me on, there’s still a bit of tea left.”

 

“Why would  _ I _ be having  _ you _ on?” Belladonna inquired.

 

Mister Baggins fidgeted uncomfortably, but then held out a hand. “That, Miss Took, is probably best answered with food.”

 

An excellent response. Belladonna nodded purposefully. “Tea, then, and you can explain to me all this. And why no one’s heard about it until now!”

 

“You Tooks are relentless,” Mister Baggins muttered.

 

“Tea,” Belladonna reminded him pointedly.

 

Mister Baggins snorted. “Tea,” he agreed.

  
  
  
  
  
  


“You’re well aware, I’m sure, of the fact that certain perishable foods are stored longer in the cold than they are in the heat,” Mister Baggins began once he’d served Belladonna a cup of tea and some rather dubious-looking but tasty biscuits. “I’m interested in replicating the effect. If we can create a cold environment at our discretion, then we can prepare for harder winters or longer summers or droughts.”

 

“The Shire hasn’t had a drought in decades!” Belladonna interjected. “And we’ve always weathered winters well enough.”

 

“You never know what’s going to happen,” Mister Baggins replied with a shrug. “But back to my icebox. Even with this goal in mind, the trouble comes in achieving it. How to create cold? It’s not as if we’ve got that wizard fellow for hire.”

 

“His name is Gandalf the Grey,” Belladonna told him. “And he’s a rather nice gentleman, as far as Big Folk go.”

 

Mister Baggins  _ harrumphed. _ “Nice or not, he’s a troublemaker and follows the breeze more than the path. But returning to my point...”

 

Belladonna refrained from pointing out that the pot may have been calling the kettle black.

 

“How to create cold? Well, after substantial observation and experimentation in the safety of my own home, I discovered the miraculous properties of water!”

 

“Water?”

 

“Yes!” Mister Baggins smirked, and he leaned forward over the table with an excited grin. Belladonna could feel one on her own face.

 

“You’re not usually like this,” Belladonna said without thinking, and it was surely a mistake to say so, because Mister Baggins’ face closed off for a moment, and he sat back in his chair.

 

“Yes, well,” Mister Baggins admitted quietly. “It’s hardly a respectable hobby, isn’t it. Not like… oh, badminton or scribery or some such gentlehobbit pursuit.”

 

Through great effort, Belladonna didn’t laugh at the way he pronounced  _ gentlehobbit pursuit _ in the same he had said  _ warg-licking _ earlier. Instead, she smiled and patted his hand. “No, but then again, adventuring is frowned on, and I’ve half a mind to follow Gandalf out of the Shire the next time he comes around Took Hill.”

 

Mister Baggins’ eyes grew to the size of teacup saucers. “Adventuring?!”

 

She could no longer resist temptation. “Pot. Kettle.”

 

Mister Baggins gaped. And then he  _ laughed. _ It was a lovely laugh, and for approximately six seconds, Belladonna was infatuated. Then she wrestled her rather ridiculous impulses under control--because, honestly, Bungo Baggins? Hardly. Even if he was turning out to be quite the interesting young lad.

 

She raised her mug of tea in a toast, and after Mister Baggins regained his composure, he returned the gesture.

 

“To oddities,” she announced grandly.

 

“To adventure.”

 

“To discovery!”

 

“To iceboxes!”

 

“To water!”

 

“To pots and to kettles!”

 

Belladonna broke down in cackles, and to her delight, Mister Baggins helplessly followed suit.

 

“Mister Baggins, I think this is the start of a wonderful friendship.” She carefully set down her teacup and stuck out her hand. “Belladonna Took, at your service.” 

 

“Bungo Baggins at yours,” he told her warmly, and his smile could have outshone the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone is curious as to what Bungo's icebox looks like, I highly encourage you to look up Doc Brown's Refrigerator from the film "Back to the Future III". It's basically a hobbit-sized version of that.


End file.
